Lost $172K Violin Found by Megabus
ABC
It was almost the most expensive trip of Mu-Chen Hsieh's life, but fortunately for the 19-year-old music student, the $172,000 violin she left in the overhead compartment of a Megabus Tuesday night was found Thursday evening.
"She came back to the bus stop half an hour afterwards, but by then the vehicle had departed off on another journey," Bryony Chamberlain, director of Megabus.com, told ABC News. "We had to trace down what vehicle she'd been on and where the vehicle had ended up. The vehicle ended up in Camden just outside Philadelphia last night and the cleaners found the violin."
Hsieh, who is studying at the New England Conservatory in Boston, was traveling from Boston to Philadelphia with her 1835 Italian-made violin to stay with her host family for the holidays.
"It was a long ride, and I was really tired, and that's why I forgot it," Hsieh told ABC News Philadelphia affiliate, WPVI-TV.
Hsieh originally thought that the violin, which was on loan from the Chi Mei Culture Foundation of Taiwan, might have been taken.
"I really hope that the person that took it can give it back to me so that I can continue my studies," she told WPVI-TV.
Chamberlain said this is likely the most expensive piece of luggage ever left on a Megabus.
"We have an awful lot of unusual lost property, but this is quite a record for us," he said. "I would always recommend that if you have any valuable luggage, keep a luggage label on it."
The violin is once again in Hsieh's hands tonight. It is a reunion that took only days, but must have felt like a lifetime for the young musician.